Ps3 gets YLOD???? oh noez!

[Groo The Perverted]

So my buddy has been using my old PS3 Fat (bought it in 2008, not an OG 60GB one), and everything has been good. He keeps good care of it, and vacuums it out every now and then.

Today he said it gave him the YLOD. He said he was in the middle of creating a player on Madden 13 and it just beeped three times fast and shut off.

Then when he tried to turn it back on it beeped a few times again and flashed yellow and is blinking red (or flashed red and is blinking yellow...kinda blanking on that part at the moment as I'm typing).

Now he said there was a whirring sound or whatever when he started it up but it would just shut back down.

Is this just an overheating issue, or is it worse? What are the remedies for fixing this (locally, that is).

He's on a limited income as it is and I sold that to him a few years back for $150 and let him pay me in installments, so he can't afford to just go out and buy a new one or send it off for an expensive repair.

Please help out if you can, with information.